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Brian Wood, Simon Coleby create Lord of the Rings game prologue

As Tolkien fans watch for the next update from the set of Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Hobbit, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is gearing up for the fall release of The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, the action RPG game set during the journey of the One Ring. Developed by Snowblind Studios, the game takes place in the great northern wastes of Middle-earth, where three heroes confront a growing army even as the Fellowship winds its way toward Mordor.

To encourage pre-orders through certain retailers, Warner Bros. Interactive is offering a digital comic produced by corporate sibling DC Comics, written by Northlanders creator Brian Wood and illustrated by Judge Dredd and The Authority artist Simon Coleby. Curiously, as IGN.com notes, gamers who pre-order through Toys ‘R’ Us will have access to both parts of the comic, while those who go through Amazon will only get Part 2.

Wood provided a few details on his involvement with the comic, writing last night on his blog: I fear the expectations on this are outpacing the reality, so I wanted to do some rumor control. I also want to say that this was a work for hire gig I did, one of the ones where the creative person (me) is a true hired gun and not involved in the larger decision making processes. In short, I wrote a script and got a check and how/when/why it’s released is not a conversation I am part of. Which is fine, it’s the way work for hire is supposed to work. THAT SAID it was a fun job. I wish I could have written more than the 16 pages of script I did, but like I said, its not up to me. I love LOTR and nothing would make me happier than to write a regular comic for general release. But as far as I know, and I’m only going off the info in the above links, this is a digital-only incentive promo comic available to people who pre-order the video game from Amazon or Toys R Us.”

There’s no firm release date for The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, or any information as to whether the digital comic will be made available through other channels.